Category: Solomons Lump

Keeper Bio: Sterling, Henry Columbus

Keepers

Date of Service: 1900 – 1937 1872: Born on August 10 to parents George B. and Nancy Clark Sterling in Lawsonia, Somerset County, MD. 1891: Marries Sally Marian Riggin on July 28. They raise 6 children. 1900: Serves as First Assistant at Solomons Lump Lighthouse, MD. His salary is $420/year. 1900-1901: Serves as First Assistant …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://cheslights.org/keeper-bio-henry-columbus-sterling/

Keeper Bio: Evans, Lorenzo Dow

Keepers

Date of Service: 1879 – 1900   1831: Born in Maryland 1875: The first Solomons Lump Lighthouse is constructed. It was a square, screwpile on five wrought iron piles. It was painted white with a brown roof and black lantern and exhibited a fixed white light. 1879-1893: Serves as Keeper at Solomons Lump Lighthouse, MD. …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://cheslights.org/keeper-bio-lorenzo-dow-evans/

Keeper Bio: Thomas, Barney Crockett

Date of Service: 1917 – 1950 1896: Born on February 4 in Tangier, VA to John W. and Emma (Crockett) Thomas.1917: Married Ella H. Crockett on September 16. Couple raises six children; two sons – Everett and Hanson; and four daughters – Emma, Catherine, Violet, and Doris. 1917: Serves aboard the Coast Guard cutter Apache.1917 …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://cheslights.org/keeper-bio-thomas-barney-crockett/

Timeline: Solomon’s Lump Lighthouse

(Located on south side of Kedges Strait near Smith Island between the Chesapeake Bay and Tangier Sound – nearly eight miles from land) 1875 First lighthouse, a screwpile built on Solomons Lump shoal. 1893 Lighthouse damaged by moving ice and later carried away by ice during construction of present caisson. 1895 Present steel caisson on cast-iron …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://cheslights.org/timeline-solomons-lump-lighthouse/

Solomon’s Lump Lighthouse

The first lighthouse erected here in 1875 was a square cottage style screwpile design. It replaced a light at Fog Point on Cherry Island about a mile to the south that was built in 1827. The screwpile lasted for 18 years until January of 1893 when ice build-up caused the structure to be bent over …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://cheslights.org/solomons-lump-lighthouse/